Chinese Web Surfers Blocked From Wikileaks

The WikiLeaks website that is attracting millions of fascinated viewers this week appears to unavailable to Chinese web surfers.

People trying to log onto wikileaks.org in China are met with a notice saying the connection has been reset. That is the typical response when Chinese censors have used their sophisticated firewall to block access to a site.

WikiLeaks this week has released more than a quarter million classified U.S. documents which offer intriguing but sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy views of the United States and its allies.

Some of the most dramatic disclosures have also been embarrassing for China -- including a report that a senior member of China's ruling politburo directed a massive hacking attack on the U.S. Internet search engine Google.

The documents also reveal that South Korea would be willing to accept the collapse of the regime in North Korea -- a Chinese ally.

China's official response to the leaks has been restrained, with a foreign ministry official simply saying the government has taken note of the disclosures and hopes Washington will handle them appropriately.